System and method for identifying the presence or absence of transparent pills in blister packer machines using high resolution 3D stereo reconstruction based on color linear cameras

ABSTRACT

A system and method of inspection may include capturing image data by a stereo imaging device. A determination as to whether noise indicative of a transparent or specular object exists in the image data may be made. A report that a transparent or specular object was captured in the image data may be made.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a 371 National Stage Application of InternationalApplication No. PCT/IT2014/000348, filed Dec. 24, 2014, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Inspection systems have traditionally had difficulty determining thepresence or absence of transparent or specular objects. As an example,pills, tablets, and capsules that are transparent or specular andincluded in packaging, such as blister packaging produced by blisterpacker machines, are to be inspected to ensure that a pill isappropriately contained in a blister or compartment of the packaging forquality control purposes. Heretofore, such automated inspection has beendifficult due to the transparent or specular nature of such pills.

Inspections on two-dimensional images, either color or grayscale, cannoteffectively discriminate between empty compartments and compartmentswith transparent pills because intensities with and without transparentpills are similar. Three-dimensional inspection systems may be moresuccessful than two-dimensional inspection systems, but blister packagesare typically carried on a conveyor belt at high speeds, such that it isdifficult to achieve high resolution reconstructions with typical cameraequipment in sufficient time to operate in high production rateenvironments.

As understood in the art, noise from imaging tends to degrade inspectionprocesses. Hence, designers of conventional image inspection systems usevarious techniques for reducing optical and other noise.

SUMMARY

An inspection system inclusive of a stereo imaging device may beutilized to perform inspection on transparent objects in high productionrate environments. In one embodiment, the stereo imaging device mayinclude linear cameras that operate at high image capture rates. Imagedata collected from the stereo imaging device may be processed inreal-time so as to enable inspection at high rates. In one embodiment,processing of the image data may include 3D reconstruction that resultsin noise from transparent or specular pills, where the noise may be usedto determine whether a transparent pill, or other transparent object, iscaptured in an image. Another embodiment may include mapping the 3Dreconstructed image onto a height or 3D map such that noise measurementsresulting from the transparent objects being within the image data canbe used to determine that a transparent object exists.

One embodiment of a method of inspection may include capturing imagedata by a stereo imaging device. A determination as to whether noiseindicative of a transparent or specular object exists in the image datamay be made. A report that a transparent or specular object was capturedin the image data may be made.

One embodiment of an inspection system may include a stereo imagingdevice configured to capture image data, and a processing unit incommunication with the stereo imaging device. The processing unit may beconfigured (i) to determine whether noise indicative of a transparent orspecular object exists in the image data, and (i) to report that atransparent or specular object was captured in the image data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described indetail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, which areincorporated by reference herein and wherein:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a system architecture for scanning objectsto determine if transparent or specular objects exist;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of an illustrative 3D stereo reconstructedimage data inclusive of objects, in this case pills, tablets, and/orcapsules;

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an illustrative high resolution, 3D stereoreconstruction of a blister package inclusive of empty and populatedalveoli;

FIG. 4A is an illustration of a color image inclusive of multiplealveolus being empty, having transparent capsules, and having normalpills;

FIG. 4B is an illustration of a height or depth map generated from 3Dreconstruction of image data, and inclusive of multiple alveolus beingempty, including transparent capsules, and including normal (e.g.,white) pills;

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an output or report of an inspection toolindicating which alveoli are empty, include transparent capsules, andinclude normal pills;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process for capturing imagedata to determine whether a transparent or specular object exists in thecaptured image data;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of illustrative software modules that may beexecuted on a processing unit to perform image processing in determiningwhether transparent or specular objects exist in captured image data;

FIG. 8A is a flow diagram of an illustrative process for determiningobject types based on pixel intensity levels in a depth map; and

FIG. 8B is a flow diagram of an illustrative process for determiningobject type based on mapped coordinates of image data.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

With regard to FIG. 1, an illustration of illustrative systemarchitecture 100 for scanning objects to determine if transparent orspecular objects exist is shown. The system architecture 100 may includea stereo imaging device 102 used to capture image data, and may be apair of cameras configured to capture image data in a stereo manner, asunderstood in the art. In one embodiment, the stereo imaging device 102are linear cameras, such as color linear cameras, which may operate athigh rates. Linear cameras acquire the image of a surface line-by-line,exploiting a relative motion between the camera system and the object tobe imaged. Alternatively, two-dimensional (2D) cameras may be utilized.However, the use of linear cameras, which have a single array of imagesensors, operate at higher speeds than 2D cameras, thereby enablingreal-time image capturing for certain applications, such as pillinspection systems.

In one embodiment, the stereo imaging device 102 may have imagingspecifications, as follows: (i) height or Z resolution of 7 μm, (ii)optical or X, Y resolution of 30 μm per pixel, (iii) 3.5 kilo pixels,(iv) field-of-view width of 105 mm, (v) working distance of 200 mm, and(vi) linescan rate of 21 kHz (0.63 m/s). The use of linear camerasenable very high resolution 3D reconstructions in real-time. Other imageprocessing techniques, such as depth maps, may also be utilized, asfurther described herein.

The stereo imaging device 102 may be positioned to image objects 104,such as pills, capsules, tablets (“pills”), or any other object, thatmay be transparent or solid. In one embodiment, a conveyor belt 106 maybe utilized to transport or move the objects 104 through a field-of-viewof the stereo imaging device such that imaging 108 of the objects 104may be performed. The imaging 108 make capture objects 104 within ascene 110 of the stereo imaging device 102. In the event that the stereoimaging device 102 is a linear camera, then the array of pixels maycapture a single scan line as the conveyor belt 106, or other motionequipment, moves the objects 104 across the field-of-view of the stereoimaging device 102.

The stereo imaging device 102 may communicate stereo image data 112 to acomputer system 114. The stereo image data 112 may be one or more datastreams or data sets of images captured by the stereo imaging device102, which may include a pair of cameras.

The computing system 114 may include a processing unit 116, which mayinclude one or more computer processors, general purpose, imageprocessing, signal processing, etc., that executes software 118 forperforming image, signal, or any other data processing. The processingunit 116 may be in communication with memory 120 configured to storedata and/or software code, input/output (I/O) unit 122 configured tocommunicate with the stereo imaging device 102 and/or any other deviceor communications network, and storage unit 124, which may be configuredto store one or more data repository is 126 a-126 n (collectively 126).The data repositories 126 may be configured to store data collected fromstereo imaging the objects 104 in a real-time manner or data processedfrom the stereo image data 112 as processed by the processing unit 116,as further described herein. Moreover, the data repositories 126 maystore template data that may be used to determine object types bycomparing objects scanned with the template data.

In operation, the computing system 114 may receive stereo image data 112from the stereo imaging device 102, and determine whether objects 104,which may be transparent, solid, or missing, and generate a report (see,for example, FIG. 5), which may be an image or otherwise, such that thesystem architecture 100 operates as an inspection system for qualitycontrol purposes or otherwise.

With regard to FIG. 2, an illustration of an illustrative 3D stereoreconstructed image data inclusive of objects, in this case pills, isshown. The image 200 may be a 3D stereo reconstruction of blisterpackaging 202 inclusive of multiple alveolus 204 a and 204 b(collectively 204) in which pills 206 a and 206 b (collectively 206)reside. The pill 206 b has a damage region 208 that is captured by astereo imaging device, such as that shown in FIG. 1, as a result ofhaving high-resolution imaging capabilities. Although the pills 206 thatreside in the alveoli are solid, imaging transparent or specular pillsis more difficult as a result of brightness that reflects from thebottom of the alveoli having about the same reflectance with and withouta transparent object therein. It should be understood that the blisterpackaging 202 is illustrative, and that alternative packaging in whichobjects may be packed for consumer or other purposes may be utilized, aswell. In one embodiment, the images of FIG. 2 and other images containedherein may be collected from the stereo imaging device 102 and formed byprocessing unit 116 of FIG. 1.

With regard to FIG. 3, an illustration of an illustrative highresolution, 3D stereo reconstruction image 300 of a blister package 302inclusive of empty and populated alveoli 304 a-304 j (collectively 304)is shown. Empty alveoli or compartments include alveoli 304 c, 304 f,304 i, and 304 j. Transparent pills, represented by noise 306 a, 306 b,and 306 c (collectively 306), are positioned in respective alveoli 304a, 304 b, and 304 e. Normal or solid pills 308 a, 308 b, and 308 creside in respective alveoli 304 d, 304 g, and 304 h. The noise 306 mayresult from reflections of light from light emitting diode (LED)lighting or other lighting reflecting from the transparent pill and/orbottom of the alveolus that causes a stereo matching algorithm, asunderstood in the art, to return inaccurate depth/Z values (i.e., noisyvalues). The noise 306 is distinguished from the normal pills 308 andempty alveoli, which are not inaccurate. Threshold values thatdistinguish between an empty alveolus, normal pill, and transparent pillmay be utilized so as to provide for automated inspection analysis, asfurther described herein. It should be understood that alternativelighting that results in less or more noise, depending on how ameasurement algorithm reacts to the lighting so as to improvemeasurement of transparent pills.

With regard to FIG. 4A, an illustration of a color image 400 a inclusiveof one or more alveolus being empty, having transparent pills, andhaving normal pills, is shown. The color image 400 a includes blisterpackaging 402 inclusive of multiple rows 404 a, 404 b, 404 c and columns406 a, 406 b, 406 c of alveoli or compartments in which pills are to bepopulated. Alveoli 404 a/406 a, 404 b/406 a, and 404 c/406 a are empty,alveoli 404 a/406 b, 404 a/406 c, and 404 b/406 c have normal pillscontain therein, and alveoli 404 b/406 b, 404 c/406 b, and 404 c/406 cinclude transparent pills. The color image 400 a, however, is atwo-dimensional image and difficult to use for determining whether analveolus is empty or has a transparent pill due to the reflection of thebottom of the alveolus that passes through a transparent pill.

With regard to FIG. 4B, an illustration of a height or depth map 400 bgenerated from 3D reconstruction of image data from the color image 400a, and inclusive of alveoli being empty, including transparent pills,and including normal (e.g., white) pills is shown. The reconstructedblister package 402′ is shown to include the rows 404′ and columns 406′of alveoli. As typically performed, the depth map 400 b is produced bysetting pixels darker for objects that are farther from an imagingdevice and pixels lighter for objects that are closer to an imagingdevice. It should be understood that other coloring, shading,brightening, or other imaging technique may be utilized inreconstructing the height map 400 b. As shown, the empty alveoli alongcolumn 406 a′ are empty, alveoli 404 a′/406 b′, 404 a′/406 c′, and 404b′/406 c′ include solid (white) pills, and alveoli 404 b′/406 b′, 404c′/406 b′, and 404 c′/406 c′ have noise values that are noisy (i.e.,both dark and light) as a result of the 3D reconstruction or stereomatching algorithm producing inaccurate depth.

With regard to FIG. 5, an illustration of an output or report 500 of aninspection tool indicating which alveolus are empty, include transparentpills, and include normal pills is shown. The report 500 is graphicalthat matches a scene (or scan of objects passing through a scene in thefield-of-view of a stereo imaging device. As shown, the report 500 showsa first brightness level representing blister packaging 502 thatincludes rows 504 a-504 c (collectively 504) and columns 506 a-506 c(collectively 506). At the alveoli, different colors, such as red (e.g.,empty), green (e.g., normal pill), and yellow (e.g., transparent pill)may be displayed so that an inspector watching an electronic display onwhich the report 500 is being displayed can see for quality controlpurposes. In one embodiment, a report may also be in the form of datathat, in response to determining that an empty alveolus exists, may becommunicated to a controller of a conveyer belt (or other motion device)to cause the conveyer belt to stop moving, thereby enabling an operatorto remove the packaging. Other conditions where incorrectly placed pills(or other objects) may also trigger reports, messages, alerts, orotherwise.

With regard to FIG. 6, a flow diagram of an illustrative process 600 forcapturing image data to determine whether a transparent or specularobject exists in the image data is shown. The process may start at step602, where image data using a stereo imaging device may be captured. Thestereo imaging device may be a color linear imaging device, which mayoperate at rates higher than other imaging devices for certaininspection operations. At step 604, a determination as to whether noiseindicative of a transparent or specular object exists in the image data.The noise may result from processing the image data to render a 3Dimage, populate a depth map, or perform other image or signalprocessing. If it is determined at step 604 that no noise exists that isindicative of a transparent or specular object, then the process 600 mayreturn to step 602. If it is determined at step 604 that noise doesexist that is indicative of a transparent or specular object, then theprocess 600 may continue at step 606, where a report that a transparentor specular object was captured in the image data. It should beunderstood that the process 600 is illustrative, and that alternativeprocesses may be utilized in response to determining or not determiningthat a transparent or specular object exists in the image data. Thereport may include a control message communicated to a controller,optionally executing on the same processor as the process 600, to causea motion device, such as a conveyer belt, to stop or slow so that anoperator or machine (e.g., robotic arm) may remove or otherwise alter adefective product.

With regard to FIG. 7, a block diagram of illustrative software modules700 that may be executed on a processing unit to perform imageprocessing in determining whether transparent or specular objects existin captured image data is shown. In one embodiment, at least a portionof the modules 700 may be executed on the computing system 114 by theprocessing unit 116 of FIG. 1. However, the modules 700 may be executedby alternative configurations of inspection systems, as well.

A capture stereo image module 702 may be configured to capture an imageof an object. The module may cause an image to be captured using astereo imaging device, such as a pair of linear cameras. The module maybe configured to read in a stream of image data being captured in ascene in a field-of-view of the stereo imaging device, and store and/orprepare the captured image data for processing by other modules.

A 3D image reconstruction module 704 may be utilized to reconstruct a 3Dimage from the captured image data. A variety of 3D image reconstructionmodules may be utilized, but ones that are specifically configured tohandle data from a linear camera if a linear camera is utilized.

A 3D image mapping module 706 may be configured to map the reconstructed3D image onto a 3D graph based on x, y, z coordinates determined by the3D image mapping module. By mapping specific coordinates, actualmeasurements may be made on pills or other objects for inspectionpurposes, for example. Such measurements may not be possible with depthmaps.

A depth map generation module 708 may be configured to generateintensity values based on measured distances of points of objects fromthe stereo imaging device. The intensity values may range from light todark, where closer points are light and farther points are dark. Theintensity value range may be calibrated from a maximum brightness to aminimum brightness so that object identification, noise identification,and other image processing functions may be more easily performed. Themodule 708 may operate to process a 2D representation of 3D data. Whilethe use of a depth map may operate to perform such functionality, itshould be understood that alternative 2D representations of 3D data arepossible, as well.

An image contrast module 710 may be configured to establish contrast ofpixels in conjunction with the depth map generation module 708 (orintegrated into the depth map generation module 708). The image contrastmodule 710 may be used to set brightness of each pixel within a maximumand minimum brightness range as set for a maximum and minimum range forobjects to be imaged (e.g., front of pill and bottom of alveolus).

A region-of-interest (ROI) processing module 712 may be optionallyutilized to read and process image data from a subset of imaging pixelsto assist in determining object types being imaged in alveoli or otherregions. Using ROI processing 712 may limit speed of processing theimage data as a result of using filtering and address data artifactsresulting therefrom.

A pill classifier module 714 may be configured to determine what type ofpill (e.g., no pill, normal pill, transparent/specular pill) is beingimaged based on characteristics of the pills. The module 714 may utilizethreshold values, such as 50% and 85% intensity values, if using a depthmap, to determine that (i) no pill is in an alveolus (low intensity),(ii) a normal pill is in an alveolus (high intensity), or (iii) atransparent or specular pill is in an alveolus or compartment (mediumintensity due to noise). It should be understood that the classifiermodule 714 (or another classifier module) may be configured to determineother types of objects that are being imaged using pattern recognition,depth recognition, or any other suitable image processing andrecognition techniques, as understood in the art. The pill classifiermodule 714 may be configured to classify pills or other objects based onactual dimensions if a 3D mapping is used or pixel intensities if adepth mapping is used.

A matching module 716 may be configured to match whether an object is inthe correct location or not. For example, in the case of inspectingblister packaging with pills in compartments of the blister packaging,the module 716 may access stored data and compare the imaged data (ordata produced by any of the other modules) to determine whether theblister packaging is properly filled with the correct pills in thecorrect locations. The module 716 in one embodiment may inspect thateach compartment is filled with a pill independent of color,transparent, or with particular colors (e.g., red, green, blue). Thatis, the module 716 may determine that the pills within the compartmentsare correctly placed based on the color, transparency, or otherwise. Themodule 716 may generate a report signal, such as correct or incorrectobject placement signals, and communicate those signals to a reportingmodule or controller module that may cause machinery to notify anoperator or cause the machinery to perform an action, such as stop,reroute, pick up, etc., thereby providing for improved quality.

A reporting module 718 may be configured to receive information from oneor more other module and generate a report. The report may includenotification signals, image generation signals, text report, numericalreports (e.g., number of pass/fail pill placements), and so on. Thereport, in the case of a human readable report, may be displayed on anelectronic display. For example, and as shown in FIG. 5, an image of ablister pack with superimposed colors on an image of object(s) beinginspected that are indicative of pass (green) or fail (e.g., red). Also,colors, patterns, words, or any other graphics indicative of type ofimaged object may be displayed in a manner that assists an operator maybe produced by the module 718. Still yet, sounds or other sensoryoperation may be caused to be produced by the module 718. Summaryreports with statistics of production of the objects (e.g., pills) overa time period may also be produced by the module 718.

With regard to FIG. 8A, a flow diagram of an illustrative process 800 afor determining object types based on pixel intensity levels in a depthmap is shown. The process 800 a may start at step 802, where image datamay be captured. The image data may be captured by a stereo imagingdevice, such as a pair of linear cameras for speed and resolutionpurposes, as may be specified by a high-rate production operation forproduction of pills or other objects that may be transparent orspecular. At step 804, the process may generate a depth map, which isunderstood to be one embodiment of a 2D representation of a 3D image, bygenerating pixels that vary in intensity based on distance from thestereo imaging device. In setting the intensity of each of the pixels,an image contrast algorithm may be utilized on a real-time basis.

An object type may be determined based on pixel intensity levels in thedepth map at step 806. In determining the object type, one or morethreshold levels for intensity may be set for use in determining whethera compartment is empty, has a normal pill, or has a transparent orspecular pill contained therein. For example, threshold levels of 50%and 85% may be set, where an average intensity value in a compartmentmay be compared against the threshold levels, so if the averageintensity value is below 50%, a compartment is determined to be empty,if the average intensity value is above 85%, a compartment is determinedto contain a normal pill, and if the average intensity value is between50% and 85%, then a compartment is determined to contain a transparentor specular pill. It should be understood that additional and/oralternative threshold levels, statistical methodologies, and so forthmay be utilized in determining object type. For example, rather thanusing average intensity value, a total number of pixels may be countedto determine whether more or fewer are above or below the thresholdvalue(s).

With regard to FIG. 8B, a flow diagram of an illustrative process fordetermining object type based on mapped coordinates of image data isshown. The process 800 b may start at step 802, where image data may becaptured. The image data may be captured by a stereo imaging device,such as a pair of linear cameras for speed and resolution purposes, asmay be specified by a high-rate production operation for production ofpills or other objects that may be transparent or specular. At step 804,the process may reconstruct a 3D map of the image data. The 3D map,which may be a Z map, allows for processing the real Z coordinates of animaged object. The 3D map may be formed by applying measured data fromthe captured image data from the stereo imaging device.

An object type, such as an empty alveolus, normal pill, ortransparent/specular pill, may be determined based on positioning of thedata in the 3D map at step 806. In determining the object type, one ormore threshold levels for Z coordinates may be set for use indetermining whether a compartment is empty, has a normal pill, or has atransparent or specular pill contained therein. For example, a thresholdlevel of 50% of the height and 85% of the height of the object may beset, so if the average height value on the 3D map is below the 50%threshold value, a compartment is determined to be empty, if the averageintensity value is above 85%, a compartment is determined to contain anormal pill, and if the average intensity value is between 50% and 85%,then a compartment is determined to contain a transparent or specularpill. It should be understood that additional and/or alternativethreshold levels, statistical methodologies, and so forth may beutilized in determining object type.

In addition to determining object type, damaged objects may bedetermined by either of the processes 800 a or 800 b depending on theresolution of the stereo imaging device. In determining damaged objects,such as pill 206 b with damage region 208 in FIG. 2, tighter ranges ofthreshold levels may be established. Alternatively, pattern matching,discontinuity identification, or shadow identification in a smoothsurface (e.g., pill surface) may be utilized to determine that a pill(or other object) is damaged.

The foregoing method descriptions and the process flow diagrams areprovided merely as illustrative examples and are not intended to requireor imply that the steps of the various embodiments must be performed inthe order presented. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the artthe steps in the foregoing embodiments may be performed in any order.Words such as “then,” “next,” etc. are not intended to limit the orderof the steps; these words are simply used to guide the reader throughthe description of the methods. Although process flow diagrams maydescribe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operationscan be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order ofthe operations may be re-arranged. A process may correspond to a method,a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a processcorresponds to a function, its termination may correspond to a return ofthe function to the calling function or the main function.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, andalgorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosedherein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, orcombinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability ofhardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules,circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms oftheir functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented ashardware or software depends upon the particular application and designconstraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans mayimplement the described functionality in varying ways for eachparticular application, but such implementation decisions should not beinterpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the principles ofthe present invention.

Embodiments implemented in computer software may be implemented insoftware, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware descriptionlanguages, or any combination thereof. A code segment ormachine-executable instructions may represent a procedure, a function, asubprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a softwarepackage, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures,or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another codesegment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information,data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments,parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via anysuitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing,network transmission, etc.

The actual software code or specialized control hardware used toimplement these systems and methods is not limiting of the invention.Thus, the operation and behavior of the systems and methods weredescribed without reference to the specific software code beingunderstood that software and control hardware can be designed toimplement the systems and methods based on the description herein.

When implemented in software, the functions may be stored as one or moreinstructions or code on a non-transitory computer-readable orprocessor-readable storage medium. The steps of a method or algorithmdisclosed herein may be embodied in a processor-executable softwaremodule which may reside on a computer-readable or processor-readablestorage medium. A non-transitory computer-readable or processor-readablemedia includes both computer storage media and tangible storage mediathat facilitate transfer of a computer program from one place toanother. A non-transitory processor-readable storage media may be anyavailable media that may be accessed by a computer. By way of example,and not limitation, such non-transitory processor-readable media maycomprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othertangible storage medium that may be used to store desired program codein the form of instructions or data structures and that may be accessedby a computer or processor. Disk and disc, as used herein, includecompact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc(DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce datamagnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media. Additionally, the operations of a method oralgorithm may reside as one or any combination or set of codes and/orinstructions on a non-transitory processor-readable medium and/orcomputer-readable medium, which may be incorporated into a computerprogram product.

The preceding description of the disclosed embodiments is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the presentinvention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles definedherein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from thespirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to beaccorded the widest scope consistent with the following claims and theprinciples and novel features disclosed herein.

The previous description is of a preferred embodiment for implementingthe invention, and the scope of the invention should not necessarily belimited by this description. The scope of the present invention isinstead defined by the following claims.

What is claimed:
 1. A method of inspection, comprising: receiving apackage inclusive of individual compartments within at least a subset ofthe compartments objects are to be positioned; capturing image dataincluding at least a subset of the compartments by a stereo imagingdevice; determining, by a processing unit, whether each of the at leasta subset of the compartments: (a) are empty; (b) include a coloredobject; or (c) include a transparent or specular object, wherein thedetermination of whether a transparent or specular object exists in theimage data is based, at least in part, on noise identified in the imagedata; and reporting, by the processing unit, a result of thedetermination that at least one of an empty compartment, a coloredobject, or a transparent or specular object was captured in the imagedata.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein capturing furtherincludes capturing using a stereo imaging device inclusive of multiplelinear cameras configured to capture the image data.
 3. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising reconstructing athree-dimensional (3D) image from the image data; and whereindetermining includes applying, by the processing unit, data pointsrepresentative of the reconstructed 3D image to a three-dimensional map.4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising: determiningwhether the data points applied to the three-dimensional map arepositioned above or below a threshold value; and determining whether atransparent or specular objects exist based on a percentage of datapoints determined to be above or below the threshold value.
 5. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising: generating, by theprocessing unit, a depth image inclusive of pixels having intensitiesrepresentative of distance from the stereo image device; and whereindetermining includes processing the depth image to determine intensitiesof pixels.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein determiningfurther includes determining whether a reflection of light on atransparent or specular object exists.
 7. The method accord to claim 1,wherein: determining whether each of the at least a subset of thecompartments are empty or include an object includes generating acontrast of the captured image data of each individual compartment;determining whether each of the at least a subset of compartments (a) isempty, (b) includes a colored object, or (c) includes a transparent orspecular object; and generating a report inclusive of whether each ofthe at least a subset (a) is empty, (b) includes a colored object, or(c) includes a transparent or specular object.
 8. The method accordingto claim 7, wherein generating the report includes generating an imageof the package and color-coded representations of objects indicative ofthe at least a subset of compartments being (a) empty, (b) inclusive ofa colored object, or (c) inclusive of a transparent or specular object.9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising capturing imagedata of the at least a subset of the compartments substantiallysimultaneously.
 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein capturingimage data includes capturing image data in a region-of-interest. 11.The method according to claim 1, wherein capturing the image dataincludes capturing the image data as two-dimensional (2D) image datarepresentative of a 3D image; and wherein determining includesprocessing the image data using the two-dimensional image data todetermine if a transparent or specular object exists therein.
 12. Amethod of inspection, comprising: capturing image data by a stereoimaging device; determining, by a processing unit, whether noiseindicative of a transparent or specular object exists in the image data;reporting, by the processing unit, that a transparent or specular objectwas captured in the image data; and responsive to determining that atransparent or specular object is missing or in an incorrect location,initiating by the processing unit, movement of the transparent orspecular object to be automatically stopped.
 13. The method according toclaim 12, further comprising: determining, by the processing unit,whether an object in the image data is a normal pill that has a colorand is within an alveolus; and determining, by the processing unit,whether the normal pill is a correct pill to be in the alveolus based onthe color.
 14. An inspection system, comprising: a stereo imaging deviceconfigured to capture image data within a field-of-view of a packageinclusive of individual compartments within at least a subset of thecompartments objects are to be positioned; and a processing unit incommunication with said stereo imaging device, and configured to:determine whether each of the at least a subset of the compartments: (a)are empty; (b) include a colored object; or (c) include a transparent orspecular object, based, at least in part, on noise identified in theimage data; and report a result of the determination that at least oneof an empty compartment, a colored object, or a transparent or specularobject was captured in the image data.
 15. The inspection systemaccording to claim 14, wherein said stereo imaging device includesmultiple linear cameras configured to capture image data.
 16. Theinspection system according to claim 14, wherein said processing unit isfurther configured to: reconstruct a three-dimensional (3D) image fromthe image data; and apply data points representative of the capturedimage to a three-dimensional map.
 17. The inspection system according toclaim 14, wherein said processing unit is further configured to:generate a depth image inclusive of pixels having intensitiesrepresentative of distance from the stereo image device; and processingthe depth image to determine intensities of pixels in determiningwhether noise indicative of a transparent or specular object exists inthe image data.
 18. The inspection system according to claim 14, whereinsaid processing unit is further configured to determine whether areflection of light on a transparent or specular object exists.
 19. Theinspection system according to claim 14, wherein said processing unit isfurther configured to: determine that a transparent or specular objectis missing or in an incorrect location; and responsive to determiningthat the transparent or specular object is missing or in an incorrectlocation, initiate stopping automatic movement of the transparent orspecular object.
 20. The inspection system according to claim 19,wherein said processing unit is further configured to: determine whetheran object in the image data is a normal pill that has a color and iswithin an alveolus; and determine whether the normal pill is a correctpill to be in the alveolus based on the color.
 21. The inspection systemaccord to claim 14, wherein: said processing unit, in determiningwhether each of the at least a subset of the compartments are empty orinclude an object is further configured to: generate a contrast of thecaptured image of each individual compartment; determine whether each ofthe at least a subset of compartments (a) is empty, (b) includes acolored object, or (c) includes a transparent or specular object; andgenerate a report inclusive of whether each of the at least a subset (a)is empty, (b) includes a colored object, or (c) includes a transparentor specular object.
 22. The inspection system according to claim 21,wherein the report includes an image of the package and color-codedrepresentations of objects indicative of the at least a subset ofcompartments being (a) empty, (b) inclusive of a colored object, or (c)inclusive of a transparent or specular object.
 23. The inspection systemaccording to claim 21, wherein said stereo imaging device is configuredto capture image data of the at least a subset of the compartmentssubstantially simultaneously.
 24. The inspection system according toclaim 14, wherein said processing unit, in capturing image data, isconfigured to capture image data in a region-of-interest.
 25. Theinspection system according to claim 14, wherein said processing unit,in capturing the image data, is configured to capture the image data astwo-dimensional (2D) image data representative of a 3D image; andwherein said processing unit, in determining, is further configured toprocess the image data using the two-dimensional image data to determineif a transparent or specular object exists therein.
 26. The inspectionsystem according to claim 16, wherein said processing unit is furtherconfigured to: determine whether data points applied to thethree-dimensional map are positioned above or below a threshold value;and determine whether a transparent or specular objects exist based on apercentage of data points determined to be above or below the thresholdvalue.